topic ii: brain development structure, development, and implications for teaching young children...
TRANSCRIPT
Topic II: Brain Development
Structure, Development, and Implications for Teaching Young Children
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Rationale for this topic
The early years are critical to brain development
YOU are impacting those early years
Your curriculum and interactions with your students influence brain development
Neuroscience should inform educational practices
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Brain Development
Here are two on-line presentations that help you look at your current understanding of the developing brain: http://www.pitc.org/cs/pitclib/download/pitc_res/118/Edited%20Brai
n%20Development%20POWERPOINT.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d
http://www.healthychildcare.org/PPT/earlybrain.ppt
After reviewing this information, STOP and think about how this impacts what you do as an early childhood teacher…
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Appreciate the complexity!
Click on the website below to see a short six minute video that provides even more visual information to help you understand the complexity of the human brain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3M7sUm-0Rw
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Understand Teenagers…!!!
If you’re interested in how the teenager’s brain is different from yours, watch this very short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsMGfg1DVSg
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Quotes to Ponder…
"“Three principles from brain research – emotional safety, appropriate challenge and self-constructed meaning – suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to classroom teaching is ineffective for most students and harmful to some.”
–Carol Ann Tomlinson and M. Layne Kalbfleisch, "Teach Me, Teach My Brain: A Call for Differentiated Classrooms.”
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Quotes to Ponder…
“The brain takes in data only through the sensory perceptions that enter through the windows of the body's five senses.”
– Lawrence Lowery, “How New Science Curriculums Reflect Brain Research.”
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Quotes to Ponder…
“From fine-tuning muscular systems to integrating emotion and logic, the arts have important biological value…Emotion and attention (which are central to all activity in the arts) often lead us to important rational behaviors that wouldn't have emerged if we hadn't walked through that arts-enhanced doorway. Emotion drives attention, and attention drives learning, problem solving, behavior, and just about everything else.”– Robert Sylwester, “Art for the Brain's Sake.”
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Quotes to Ponder…
“New brain research shows not only that music is fun, but also that it improves our brain development and even enhances skills in other subjects such as reading and math…Music has the ability to facilitate language acquisition, reading readiness, and general intellectual development; to foster positive attitudes and to lower truancy in middle and high school; to enhance creativity; and to promote social development, personality adjustment and self-worth.”
– Norman M. Weinberger, “The Music in Our Minds.”
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Quotes to Ponder…
“Research shows that students who talk about how they and others think become better learners. The theory of mind that children acquire in the preschool years provides the conceptual foundation for the metacognitive skills they require in school.”
– Janet Wilde Astington, “Theory of Mind Goes to School.”
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Multiple Intelligences
Now let’s throw this theory into the mix…
It is supported by brain research
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Howard’s AHA!
He studied brain damaged patients – loss of their abilities based on the injury location in the brain
He found that one lost ability doesn’t imply another lost ability
He used brain-based criteria along with careful research from anthropology, biology, & psychology to identify the various intelligences
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
The theory of multiple intelligences…
Does not ask how smart are you?
It asks, how are you smart?
The next slide shows the eight categories of intelligence that have been identified
Go to this Wikipedia website to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Theory_of_multiple_intelligences
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI)
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
So what is intelligence?
“A biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture.”
Intelligence Reframed (1999) by Howard Gardner
*This means that what is valued as intelligent behavior in one place and time is not necessarily valued in another place and time
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Back to the Future
Think back…What intelligences would have been most valued in our culture 100 years ago?
Think forward…How might technology affect the value of intelligences in the future?
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Learn More!
Watch this 17 minute video and learn more about intelligence, the brain, and emotions…it’s really good…stick with it!:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2258298047476784389&q=Ho
ward+Gardner&hl=en
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Multiple Intelligences in Action…
Follow this link to read one first grade teacher’s implementation of multiple intelligences in relation to community helpers:
http://www.newhorizons.org/
trans/international/ribot.htm
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.
Your Turn
Read the article by Pat Wolfe…she is an educator who has extensively studied neuroscience
Complete the activity and email it to the Mano a Mano mailbox
Answer the Discussion Board question related to this topic
Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. & Cathy McAuliffe-Dickerson, Ph.D.